Trump can't shut up about Biden: Do all narcissists have unhealthy obsessions with their rivals? In a June call with Xi Jinping, Trump suggestedâunpromptedâthat China should investigate Joe Biden. In a presser this morning, Trump said he DIDN'T encourage Xi to hunt for dirt on Biden, but CNN reported today that on a June 18 call (stored on the same secure server where the infamous Ukraine call was stored), Trump talked with Xi about Biden and Warren at length. On that call, he suggested that he would stay quiet about the Hong Kong protests... which sounds a lot like quid pro quo. China was reportedly uninterested in exposing the hot gossip on Biden.
Send it: I feel the same way.
Well that was weird.
â Washington State DOT (@wsdot) October 2, 2019
Are we supposed to call South Lake Union "Cloud City"? Google opened the first part of its new five-building campus in South Lake Union today, and the GeekWire post on the opening reads: "Google and Amazon are officially next-door neighbors in Cloud City." I paused on the nickname. I assume it's because all these companies are feuding over cloud computing, and the Google Cloud campus features a giant cloud on it. But have techies referred to Seattle as Cloud City for a long time? Is the whole city Cloud City or is it just South Lake Union? Or just the Google campus? Anyhow, I don't hate the nickname and I'm referring to South Lake Union as Cloud City from now on. Cloud City, the land of corpcore.
Bernie Sanders will be in the next Democratic debate: His heart is strong.
Our former editor-in-chief gets ratioed on Twitter: For profiling the creator of the Proud Boys for Los Angeles Magazine. Katie says it's a good story. (Also, that's a finger. Not a penis.)
Gavin McInnes's disdain for PC culture helped turn Vice into a media colossusâtwo decades later, it's made him a virtual pariah. Inside his rise as the clown prince of the far right https://t.co/wSVtzveBnO pic.twitter.com/aN2bRId6iy
â Los Angeles Magazine (@LAmag) October 3, 2019
Would love to know how many of these people actually read it. pic.twitter.com/Q2PX6NJtTX
â Katie Herzog (@kittypurrzog) October 3, 2019
Far-right conspiracy theorist mocked for creating Warren erotica: High-profile troll Jacob Wohl sent out a media alert today announcing a press conference "where a former U.S. Marine will apparently claim he had an affair with 2020 presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren," reports Newsweek. Twitter had a field day with the "news."
Congrats to Elizabeth Warren on rising so quickly in the polls she forced Jacob Wohl to write erotica about her. pic.twitter.com/w73YkrEbu2
â Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) October 3, 2019
I LOVE THIS WHOLE SAGA, EVERY SINGLE THING ABOUT IT https://t.co/cuNXy4J2Lu
â Garth Greenwell (@GarthGreenwell) October 3, 2019
I'd be way more into rightwing conspiracies if they all came with hot shirtless boys.
â Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) October 3, 2019
Meanwhile, Warren's official response to the "scandal" is: "Go Cougars."
It's always a good day to be reminded that I got where I am because a great education was available for $50 a semester at the University of Houston (go Cougars!). We need to cancel student debt and make college free for everyone who wants it. pic.twitter.com/fHasLm0j9P
â Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 3, 2019
Seattle's Intiman Theatre will keep the doors open: The theater came very close to closing but announced today that they will remain open and kick off a fundraiser to raise $200,000 by the end of the year.
Outrage over Deputy Seattle Police Chief Marc Garth Green's remark that some sex workers âchoose to do what theyâre doingâ and "enjoy it": Multiple council members rebuked the comment, with Sawant calling it âjust not acceptable.â SPD clarified the remark today, with a police captain stating that "he does not believe sex workers 'enjoy' such work."
Personally, I find this pearl-clutching to be reductive: A distinction must be made between victims forced into prostitution and sex workers who choose to labor within the oldest profession in the world. We should be working toward decriminalizing sex work. Thinking the work is solely populated by victims and abusers works against that goal by denying agency to the people who chooseâand enjoyâthe work. I have many friends who are sex workers, by choice, who do enjoy their work. The larger point is Seattle and SPD shouldn't be arresting sex workers to keep them safe.
There's another whistle-blower: This one's coming from the IRS, where a whistle-blower "filed a complaint alleging that senior Treasury officials tried to exert influence over the mandatory audit of President Trumpâs tax returns," reports the New York Times. The complaint apparently does not "directly implicate" Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. It's hard to tell how big of a deal this whistle-blow is; the details are vague.
Some random shouting:
ELECTION INTERFERENCE!
â Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2019
Some more random shouting: This thought came during a speech at a health care rally in Florida today.
Trump laments that CNN is the one U.S. cable news channel with an international presence.
"We ought to start our own network and put some real news out there," he says.
â Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) October 3, 2019
Trump's speech was at the exclusive retirement community, The Villages, outside of Orlando: I spent a few days in The Villages in 2016 with my friend's dad who retired there. Every night at 5 p.m. there's group-dancing in the piazzas. The old ladies will buy you booze if you call them "mommy." I obliged.
Pete's betting big on Iowa: Can he do it?
Bruley, the French bulldog who starred in Netflix's Queer Eye, is dead: The nation mourns.